A Purring (shin-kicking) match in Pennsylvania, 1883

"Purring" (shin-kicking), which originated in Wales, is practised a good deal at the present day among the coal-miners of Pennsylvania. A Philadelphia correspondent of the New York Sunday Mercury presented to that paper an extended account of a " purr" which took place at Port Richmond (Penn.), in January, 1883, from which is taken a description of the first two rounds:

At two o'clock the men appeared, wearing Lancashire shoes toed with copper, having submitted their feet for inspection to show that there were no protruding nails, and James gave the word to purr. Grabby advanced cautiously, and appeared to forget about the shoulder-straps until his second reminded him of it. He took hold with apparent unwillingness, and then began the most brutal and savage contest that two men could engage in. For fully five minutes they sparred with their feet in a manner that was simply wonderful. Blows were countered and returned with the same skill and rapidity as shown by men fighting with their fists. Not once in that time did either man more than touch his opponent's skin. Then McTevish, taking a firmer hold on his opponent's collar, lifted his left foot and, after keeping it poised for a moment, make a straight toe kick for his opponent's right knee. Grabby deftly avoided the blow by spraddling his legs far apart, and with almost inconceivable quickness brought his left foot around and caught McTevish on the outside of the right calf. The flesh was laid open almost to the bone, and the blood spurted out in streams. McTevish never uttered a word. At the same instant that his own leg was cut he gave Grabby what is known as a sole scrape. Beginning at the instep and ending just below the knee-pan, Grabby's left shin was scraped almost clear of skin. Both men were evidently in pain, and angry. They kicked and countered a dozen times again without doing any damage. Then Grabby, by some mishap, lost his hold on his opponent's shoulder-strap. In attempting to grasp it again he lifted his eyes for a moment, and before he could recover himself the calves of both his legs were laid open by a double-foot kick. In return for this he succeeded in delivering a terrific kick on McTevish's knee, causing him to drop to the ground like a log, pulling the other kicker on top of him. The seconds rushed forward and separated the men and took them to their corners to bind up their wounds. The first go or round occupied sixteen minutes. When the call of purr came again the purrers hobbled to the centre and took another hold. They were, indeed, a pitiable-looking pair. McTevish's legs, although bound up in plaster, were bleeding freely, and the exposed places looked like beefsteak. His opponent's shins had been both scraped clean of the flesh, and the blood was oozing out from between the strips of plaster. Without any preliminary sparring Grabby made a vicious straight kick at his opponent's lame knee, bringing him to grass again before he had time to think.

So leg boxing. Does anybody practice this kind of thing today? Maybe without the copper and the shoes or something? It sounds like it could be an intricate discipline from the sound of the commentator.

So leg boxing. Does anybody practice this kind of thing today? Maybe without the copper and the shoes or something? It sounds like it could be an intricate discipline from the sound of the commentator.

A somewhat milder (non-professional) form of purring is still practiced at the "Cotswold Olympicks", which is a traditional sports festival in England:

That sounds nasty, i've been lightly kicked in the shins with steel capped boots before and it was an incredibly painful moment. No doubt this died out due to labourers not being able to do their jobs for weeks after one of these matches.

That sounds nasty, i've been lightly kicked in the shins with steel capped boots before and it was an incredibly painful moment. No doubt this died out due to labourers not being able to do their jobs for weeks after one of these matches.

Would depend on the conditions of the match. Was watching some youtube clips on it and the amateur matches went until one of the ppl was thrown to the ground. I would guess the diff is something like the diff between a Professional Muay Thai match vs an Amateur one??

Oh,and as a side note?? one of the clips mentioned Shin Kicking as being one method of determining would got the girl lol. If 2 (or more) guys were wanting the same woman?? they shin kicked to see who got to keep her lmao!!.